Championing a circular water industry at Ozwater24

Meet our passionate leaders who are lending their expertise to highlight important opportunities for the water industry at the conference, and in their roles at WSP.

Monday, 22 April 2024 - Australia

Ozwater is always an exciting opportunity for the water industry to gather and look at the important topics shaping the sector. At this year’s conference in Melbourne on 30th April – 2nd May, we are looking at three areas to keep top of mind for water professionals – organisational culture, resource recovery, and digital tools.

In this article, WSP’s leaders from across disciplines share their perspective on the significance of these focus areas to the water industry.

For more sustainable water projects, a circular approach to resource recovery should remain top of mind – Maree Marshall

Maree Marshall leads WSP’s Waste Management & Circular Economy Engineering team who are respected for their quality design and advisory work. She got started in civil engineering in water / hydraulics and that led to a discovery of litter and beaches and what was happening to our environment.

“I’d like to see in the next 10 years much more acknowledgement of circularity across sectors, a real commitment in Australia to just generating so much less waste, and really thinking about the way we design things. If I can keep pushing that agenda and that story, I will be a very happy person.” says Maree.

Maree will be chairing the Stream 3 session on ‘Resource Recovery’ kicking off at 1.10 pm on 1st May.

Delivering inclusive and diverse culture for organisations is key to a project’s success – Mia Lindsey

Mia Lindsey leads WSP’s national Water Major Projects team in Australia, and she enjoys bringing people together to create the right team environments and mixes of skills to deliver great project outcomes.

“To me, there are few things more fun or rewarding than forming and working with a great team to bring a project vision to life. I see each project as an opportunity to achieve strategic business goals and build capability of the organisation, my project team, and myself,” Says Mia.

“I am a woman of color who has worked in the field of engineering for nearly 30 years. When I was coming up, there were very few role models that looked like me, and I didn’t always feel seen and heard. I never want anyone to feel like I don’t see them or hear them. I have always wanted to achieve big things, but you can’t achieve big things alone – you need a great team. I believe that everyone in a team has something valuable to contribute. That’s why it’s so important to approach project delivery in a collaborative and inclusive way.”

Mia will be chairing the Stream 2 session on ‘organisational culture’ kicking off at 10.35am on 1st May.

Digital tools are transforming efficiency in the water sector – Henry Okraglik

Henry Okraglik is WSP’s Global Director of Digital, and he has found digital tools to be beneficial in driving efficiency and information sharing in the water sector – specifically for Delivering for Customers (D4C) which is the organisation responsible for works and maintenance in Sydney Water’s Southern Region. WSP is a member of the D4C consortia.

“The broader benefit is all about getting the work done as efficiently as possible through a data-driven approach. That starts with work orders generated by Sydney Water, and it flows all the way through to D4C operatives in the field. One example is the integration of InEight Document into a Geospatial front end to facilitate easy and quick access to site and task specific work orders,” Says Henry.

Henry will speak more about his work with Sydney Water at Ozwater. Catch his presentation on 30th April at 2.35 – 3.00 pm.